This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte episode 5.

Summary

• Manny Jacinto's Qimir is The Acolyte's Sith Lord, inspired by a heroic character turned villain.
• Qimir's true identity and abilities hint at a non-traditional Sith lineage, posing questions about his connection to canon.
• Qimir's mission to eliminate all Jedi who know of him sets up a dark outcome, leaving viewers uncertain about the show's direction.

The Acolyte has revealed the true identity of its mysterious Sith Lord, now officially called "The Stranger," and in so doing it has set up some massive twists to protect canon. The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland grew up as part of the Star Wars fandom, and her Disney+ TV show demonstrates a deep knowledge of canon and lore. When viewers heard The Acolyte would introduce a Sith Lord a century before the Skywalker saga, it was always clear how this story would end: in tragedy.

The Acolyte episode 5 is best described as a Jedi bloodbath, the biggest seen on-screen since Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. A squad of Jedi head to the planet Khofar to confront the Sith assassin Mae, and unwittingly stumble across her master instead. Several Jedi were set up as redshirts, but shockingly this also featured the deaths of major characters, as the Sith Lord cut a brutal swathe through the assembled Jedi. He was still unmasked, though, his true identity finally revealed.

The Acolyte's Sith Lord Is Manny Jacinto's Qimir

He was exactly who we thought he was

The Acolyte's Sith Lord is in fact Manny Jacinto's Qimir. To be fair, most viewers had guessed this; there had been so many clues pointing to the idea Qimir was the Sith Lord. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Headland and her crew revealed the Sith Lord was inspired by the heroic "Drunken Cat" from the 1966 Hong Kong martial arts movie Come Drink With Me. There, a goofy character is revealed to be a secret Shaolin master; The Acolyte inverts this, revealing the true villain was someone innocuous all along.

The reveal may not have been subtle, but it's truly satisfying, in large part because of Jacinto's performance. He absolutely sells the Stranger as a force to be reckoned with, a malicious and malevolent being who burns with resentment towards the Jedi. There are strange hints his hatred is personal, somehow tied to those mysterious events on Brendok 16 years ago, and he even possesses powers similar to the witches of Brendok. Jacinto performs most of the action himself, demonstrating phenomenal lightsaber choreography, showing just how much he'd practiced.

Qimir May Not Be Of The Baneite Sith

But is Qimir a true Sith at all?

This doesn't mean all the mysteries surrounding the Sith have been revealed. The Stranger's conversation is odd, and his taunts don't seem to indicate he's part of an ancient Sith lineage; he doesn't even have a formal Sith Name, which is usually granted by a master. This raises the possibility he isn't a formal Sith, of the line of Darth Bane, but is instead simply someone who has stumbled across Sith teachings.

This would be a smart twist, because it raises the possibility that - should Qimir be defeated - his death wouldn't cause any problems with Star Wars canon. This has been the question troubling viewers since before The Acolyte aired; why would the Jedi think the Sith had been extinct for a millennium, if they'd crossed blades with a Sith just a century ago? But if they thought this was just a would-be Sith, a pretender who'd learned their ways and turned to the dark side, their belief would make sense.

There is precedent for this in Star Wars Legends, where Abel Peña's 2006 Holocron article Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties featured a similar figure named Kibh Jeen:

"The Jedi heard next to nothing of the Sith after the Battle of Rusaan. There were the vague threats by dark sider Kibh Jeen at his moment of desperation during the Dark Jedi Conflict (circa 150 years before the Battle of Naboo), who spouted seeming gibberish about there always being no more or less than two Sith, but few Jedi gave his mad utterances any credence. But then the Sith cultists began emerging. These 'Sith' were disorganized and harmless for the most part. Many were merely youths in rebellion, without any solid idea of Sith doctrine or even any Force-sensitivity. But not all of them."

In Legends, Kibh Jeen was the reason the Jedi heard of the Rule of Two. Headland has hinted The Acolyte will answer the same question, so it's possible she has based her Disney+ TV show on this idea; she's an old-school fan with deep knowledge of Legends. Far from causing problems with Star Wars canon, this would turn the Stranger into the solution for a long-standing issue.

Qimir Has One Mission: To Kill All Jedi Who Know Of His Existence

The Acolyte has set up a very dark outcome

In any case, Qimir explicitly states his mission right now: to kill all Jedi who have learned of his existence. Viewers initially assumed Headland would never do anything so dark, but those illusions were shattered in The Acolyte episode 5. There, incredibly, Qimir killed even some of the most popular characters in the show; Dafne Keen's Jecki met a heartbreaking end, while Charlie Barnett's Yord had his neck snapped. Only one of the Jedi is still alive, Lee Jung-jae's Master Sol.

Amandla Stenberg's twins have switched places, though, meaning Qimir now has Sol's former apprentice Osha as his prisoner. It's easy to imagine a scenario where he used this against Sol, drawing him into a trap and brutally killing him. If this is the case, there's no reason Qiimir couldn't actually be a Baneite Sith without breaking canon - because all witnesses are about to die.

Viewers often reduce continuity and canonicity to a sort of straightjacket, restricting future stories, when in reality it is far more dynamic. It is true that the inclusion of a Sith in this era has the potential to cause continuity problems, but the real excitement comes in seeing how well it all ties together in the end. Right now, The Acolyte has set up two stunning potential outcomes - and it remains to be seen which approach will be taken.